Melburne v Fremantle, Sunday May 4, at the MCG, 2.10 pm
FORECAST
Fine - Min: 10°C Max: 19°C
BETTING
Melbourne $3.35, Fremantle $1.33 (TAB Sportsbet)
LAST TIME THEY MET
Melbourne 12.13 (85) def by Fremantle 22.12 (144), round 21, 2007 at Subiaco
FORM GUIDE
Melbourne
Not many media outlets have missed the Demons after a winless start to the season. But Dean Bailey and his staff continue to work toward that first win despite the barrage of criticism. Cam Bruce had 33 touches last week and Nathan Jones kicked four goals, while exciting youngsters like Cale Morton, James Frawley and Austin Wonaeamirri continue to develop.
Fremantle
The purple crew were at their erratic best (and worst) early in the season. The Dockers opened with two disappointing losses only to show plenty of grit in their win over West Coast. Despite having not won a game since then, their intensity has been on the improve and they nearly upset the mighty Cats last week.
RANDOM FACTS
This will be the 23rd time these two teams have met since Fremantle’s entry into the AFL in 1995 with Fremanlte holding a 12 wins to 10 advantage.
KEY MATCH UPS
Nathan Carroll v Matthew Pavlich
Carroll is the obvious choice to go to the man whose performance will go a long way to determining the result of the match. But if he struggles early, it couldn’t hurt to roll the dice and give Frawley a crack even if it is purely for the experience.
Cameron Bruce v Ryan Crowley
After a sluggish start to the season, Bruce is starting to hit his straps and shutting him down will be a priority for Mark Harvey. With Josh Carr out, Ryan Crowley looms as the likely candidate for a run-with role after he annoyed the hell out of Gary Ablett last week.
Jeff White v Aaron Sandilands
The purple giant is averaging 31 hitouts a game so far this season, but he also started to get his hands on the ball around the ground against the Cats last week. White has the advantage in terms of aerobic capacity, but he must work even harder this week to counter Sandilands in his 100th game.
WHAT THE CLUBS SAY
Melbourne
"The club is in a situation where we need people to come to the game and support the club now. I think it's really important that they come. We've got just over 25,000 members and we're obviously looking to try and improve that number if we can.
"We need to put our best foot forward this week as we've got a chance to win the game. We need to meet it with the belief that we can win the game." – coach Dean Bailey
Fremantle
“We have nothing to be complacent about ourselves, we’re only one game ahead of Melbourne and what we’ve got to do is back up that performance [against Geelong]. That’s what we’ve got to do, that’s been the whole focus and hopefully we can do that consistently from now on.” – coach Mark Harvey
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or clubs.
